Delfino regains appetite for scoring, leads Rockets past Hawks

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For all of Daryl Morey’s maneuvers, all the steps he had made to nearly remake the Rockets’ roster since last season, he fell woefully short in an important area.

The Rockets general manager has been unable to sign a food taster for Carlos Delfino.

He has time to fill that glaring hole, but the next time Delfino chooses to dine at Casa de Manu, Morey will need to make sure Delfino does not go alone.

When Delfino broke bread with his friend and Argentina national teammate Manu Ginobili last week, he left with food poisoning he blames on a piece of sausage his host served the night before the Rockets faced the Spurs. Delfino missed the next two games as the Rockets went from a five-game winning streak to a short-handed, two-game crash.

When he returned Monday, the Atlanta Hawks failed to order takeout from Ginobili’s house, leaving them helpless to stop the Rockets sixth man.

With Delfino back and rolling through his best game of the season, the Rockets’ renewed depth wore down the Hawks, pulling away to a 123-104 win to end the two-game losing streak by moving to 12-2 against Eastern Conference teams.

“In the West, we are running teams,” guard Toney Douglas said. “In the East, they walk the ball up and slow the ball down a lot, except for Miami. In the West … we run.”

The Hawks run, too, ranking sixth in fast-break points and scoring 21 on the break Monday.

But the Rockets scored easily. Their 61.5 percent shooting in the first half was their best for a half this season, and their 16 3-pointers (29 attempts) matched their Toyota Center record set this season.

Delfino’s season high

But the Rockets put the game away on the strength of their bench, with Delfino returning to score a season-high 22 points and match his career high with eight assists.

“Carlos was great. He just played simple basketball. He just made simple plays. It’s kind of how he plays. He just lets the game come to him. He makes the right play.

“When the ball hits his hands, he moves it to the next guy. He looks across court, pump fakes, he throws it across court.

“He just plays real solid. He’s just a very good basketball player.”

With Delfino’s strong return, the Rockets scored 49 points off the bench, getting a lift from Patrick Patterson and Douglas.

The starters played well, with James Harden scoring 28 for his 13th consecutive game with at least 20; Jeremy Lin scoring 16 with eight assists and four steals; Omer Asik getting 17 rebounds; and Marcus Morris scoring 15 points, making three of four 3s.

But the difference was when the game was in the hands of Delfino and the bench. When the Rockets poured through a 16-0, second-quarter run, Delfino got it started with a pair of 3-pointers.

When the Hawks rallied in the third quarter, as Lou Williams put up 15 of his 21 points and the Rockets missed five shots at the rim, Delfino returned to immediately sink another 3 and finish a drive as the Rockets pushed the lead back to 15 heading to the fourth.

And when the Hawks cut the lead to five with five minutes left, Delfino drained a 3-pointer, his sixth of the night, and finished a break to push the lead back to double digits and toward a rout.

“When you start making the first couple of shots, you feel better,” Delfino said. “When we share the ball, we pass the ball, we find the open guy and we hit shots, we played together.

“When we play together it’s much easier. That’s the way we make runs and today we were able to do that.”

Recipe for disaster

But the biggest key was that it has been days since Delfino dined with the Ginobilis.

“I went to his house and everyone eats the same, but this little piece of sausage I get,” Delfino said. “I’ve been down for 72 hours and they are everybody healthy. He was blaming himself. Maybe next time we play against them I will talk to my wife about putting some sausage for him, or something like that.”

But after his head-turning return Monday, the Rockets might prefer he just play it safe and dine in.